Freyne Land

Here's a shot of the Vermont tree all a glitter keeping an eye on the United States Capitol in Washington.

Somebody's got to, eh?

Taken by a tall, follicly-challenged Vermont guy who has a job in the building.

Thanks, Senator.

The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce held its annual reception for Chittenden County legislators at the newly refurbished Hilton Hotel in Burlington Tuesday evening. Yours truly swung by after putting the ol' "Inside Track" to bed over at Seven Days.

The weather kept the crowd down a bit but still, more than 200 people showed: folks from the congressional offices, business leaders like Melinda Estes and Theresa Alberghini DiPalma from Fletcher Allen Health Care [aka the "Mary Fanny"], GM Paul Sands from WPTZ-TV and Bill Young, the former SRS Commish who's been running Maple Leaf Farm in Underhill the last three years.

That's Bill with State Sen. Vince Illuzzi (R-Essex/Orleans (left) and the LCRCC' distinguished Top Dog - Tom Torti. [What's Tommy Guns tucking inside his sport jacket?]

A bunch of Chittenden County legislators were there including StateSen. Doug Racine (D) whose name was in the news as "thinking about" agubernatorial bid.

Let me tell ya something. A gubernatorial candidate would have been "working the room," as they say.

Ol' Doug wasn't.

But Illuzzi, the "King of the Kingdom" was!

Why?

"Economic development in Vermont revolves around Chittenden County," Sen. Illuzzi explained. "As chairman of the Senate's Economic Development Committee," said Illuzzi, "I've got to be there or be square!"

Very upbeat crowd, I must say. Despite the gloomy, depressing times, folks were particularly open, warm  and friendly - more than usual. Hey, all we've got is each other, right?

"The stock market may be going into the tank," quipped Vince the Prince, "but you wouldn't know it in this crowd."

Amen.

Did you catch 'em on the box last night at 10 O'Clock?

First impressions?

Vermont's brand new TV news operation, finally kicked off on Fox 44 [that's Ch. 9 on Comcast] with a half-hour nightly news - seven nights a week.

Hey, the snowstorm made it easy on Opening Day, eh?

It's been a little over four years since ABC22 pulled the plug on their local news operation. It's been just WCAX vs. WPTZ since. Seems the whole Vermont news biz has been shrinking.

I sat down the other day with the folks behind getting our new TV news operation up and running. The folks behind the camera.

I'm saving that for tomorrow's "Inside Track."

Very interesting.

But that didn't stop the People's Republic of Burlington from doing the blue-box recycle run here in the South End.

And I hope you, too, are enjoying Public Safety Commissioner Kerry Sleeper's appearance with Mark Johnson on WDEV AM-FM this fine morning.

The veteran state trooper who rose to the top, Kerry Sleeper is retiring --- looking for a little consultant work as he hits his "older" years.

Kerry declined to comment directly on Windsor County State's Attorney Bobby Sand's suggestion we  take another look at how we handle marijuana and other "illegal" drugs since treating drug abuse as a crime issue instead of a substance-abuse/healthcare issue clearly has not shown any indication whatsoever of working.

Sleeper did say, however, that most young people in treatment for substance abuse are marijuana smokers.

As for the illegal-drug biz that's sparked an up-tick in violent crime in Vermont in the last year, Ol’ Kerry said it primarily involved cocaine and crack cocaine. 

One caller just asked why if Prohibition [of alcohol] didn't work in the 1920s, what makes him think prohibition of other equally popular drugs will work?

Good question.

Was sitting on a window stool at Capitol Grounds on State Street in Montpeculiar yesterday while the House Democrat Caucus took its lunch break.  Commiserated with Steve from Chelsea. Old dudes lamenting the absence of a voice of any kind emanating from the youth of today.

And sharing a smile over how sweet it was to pick up the Gannett-chain daily paper - Le Freeps de Burlington - and read the story about the high school kids protesting the Iraq War at the National Guard recruiting office in Williston Friday afternoon - 13 arrests for trespassing. The Freeps even has some excellent video of it all on its web site.

It was a Sixties flashback for the two old guys sitting in the window sipping coffee and swapping stories about the Vietnam War protests of our younger days.

Finally.

Then comes more good news this morning from Montpeculiar!  Montpelier High School has not only been picked 5th best in the friggin' country by US News, but grad Garrett Graff's first book has hit the street!

Yes, that Garrett Graff. The high-school "kid" who set up Gov. Howard Dean's first website 10 years ago in 1997 when all this internet stuff seemed so new,

Garrett's book is titled The First Campaign.

Subtitled: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House

As his book website notes, Graff:

"comes from a long line of journalists: His grandfather, Bert McCord, was the drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune; his father, Christopher Graff, was the long-time bureau chief of the Associated Press in Vermont, and his mother, Nancy Price Graff, is a historian, children's book author, and former magazine editor."

Bravo!

The Montpelier kid also has an interesting article in today's Washington Post.

Nothing better for this non-skier to do this sunny and frigid Saturday than to hit the Vermont Statehouse to catch the House Democratic Caucus in action!

Ah! How we've missed the Legislature, Vermont's House of Commons, eh?

It was the annual pre-session preview for the majority party that "controls" the 150-member House. Plus the legislative "pages" and their parents were there for their introduction to some interesting times ahead come January. 

Here's current House Speaker Gaye Symington {2005-present] of Jericho having a wee up-close and personal little chat with former House Speaker Michael Obuchowski [1995-2001] of Bellows Falls in Room 11 under Montpeculiar's beautiful Golden Dome.

More on the behind-the-scenes and between-the-lines later.

The show started at 10 am and wrapped up around 3:30 pm. Nancy Remsen was there for The Burlington Free Press and Louis Porter for the Rutland Herald/Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.

Ch. 3's Andy Potter, my old radio-news sidekick from the days of President Ronald Reagan, popped in for a quickie. He did a stand-up with Speaker Symington.

His went a lot smoother than mine...

Pinch me. It was the Democrat Caucus, not the Republican, right?

Nice to hit the online edition of The Burlington Free Press, my favorite local daily, this morning and catch Matt Sutkoski's article about the antiwar protest on Friday at the Vermont National Guard recruiting office in Williston.

Everyone from local high school students to soldiers who fought in the Bush-Cheney madness in Iraq participated. The Freeps reports 13 people were arrested and charged with trespassing.

Yours truly had other items on the Friday agenda including checking out the new TV news operation our local Fox affiliate will be offering local TV news junkies starting Monday at 10 pm.

Protest-wise, however, I did swing by what has become a Monday-Friday ritual at the top of Church Street in front of the Unitarian Church. An older bunch of protestors have been "religiously" demonstrating their antiwar feelings Monday-Friday from 5 pm to 5:30. It's an antiwar protest that one of its regulars, author Marc Estrin (with the "got fascism?" sign) told me "has logged more person-hours than any demonstration of its kind."

They started the daily antiwar protest, said Marc, way back before Dubya even launched his Iraq invasion - on September 13, 2001 - more than six years ago.

That's persistence, eh?